Barack Obama has used his first high-profile speech since stepping down as US president to take swipes at “strongman politics” and politicians’ disregard for the facts. His comments are seen as thinly veiled criticism of the current US administration’s use of what has been described as “alternative facts”. Here are five key points from his…
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear that Israel will now consider arson attacks from Gaza in the same way that it considers launches of rockets and mortars. Speaking ahead of his weekly Cabinet meeting recently, Netanyahu referenced the announcement from Gaza militant groups that a ceasefire had been reached after a serious escalation…
US President Donald Trump today faced a barrage of criticism from his opponents and even from his own party for not backing the American intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential elections won by him. Sharply reacting to Trump’s joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Helsinki after their…
The story of children in Southern Nigeria terrorized for being suspected of being witches and warlocks. In early February, Comfort and her sister Hope, 15, and five-year-old brother Godbless had been living with their grandmother Christiana in nearby Akampka. Their parents had died suddenly in unexplained circumstances, and while this had made Christiana wary…
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has cemented himself as the strongman of Turkey, after his coalition won presidential and parliamentary elections that will extend his powers and possibly his rule for as long as a decade. Erdogan’s coalition gained around 53% of the vote with close to 90% turnout, according to the state broadcaster, meaning he…
At the end of this year’s mundial, the general opinion of most observers is that the Russians delivered to the world one of the best World Cup tournaments in history. Vladimir Putin has scored a diplomatic goal by staging one of the most hospitable soccer fiestas of modern times. Even stranded fans from Nigeria are…
For French citizens reeling under the whiplash of former President Francois Hollande’s disastrous rule, last Sunday’s Presidential election came as a burst of fresh air in a setting that was desperately scorched and blighted. The woes, soaring unemployment, repeated terrorist attacks and a badly managed economy were well advertised during the recent campaigns, which saw…
The outgoing governor of Ekiti State, Peter Ayodele Fayose, is the poster boy of everything wrong with Nigerian politics. To that end, like President Muhammadu Buhari, I should be celebrating the defeat of Fayose’s candidate, Olusola Eleka of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, by John Kayode Fayemi of our party, the All Progressives Congress, APC,…
June 3rd 2018, Prof. Joseph Eberendu Ahaneku, Fellow Academy of Science , marked four years of piloting the affairs of NnamdiAzikiwe University, Awka (UNIZIK) as the 5th substantive Vice-Chancellor. Prof. Ahaneku assumed office on June 3rd, 2014 after emerging tops in the keenly contested post. A native of Nnarambia Ahiara Mbaise in Ahiazu-Mbaise Local Government…
For the average Nigerian, the word emperor sounds far and unreal. It only helps one recall yester-years stories of colonisation and ruins brought upon primitive people by the by-gone autocrats like Hitler and Stalin. Little wonder, therefore, that many Nigerians, including those politically enlightened, are oblivious that the gravest problem facing our democracy today is…
